Lost Memories
by Reika-Hell-Flower
Summary: While at the Country of Waves, Sakura comes across a girl who's alone on the streets, ill and weak. Taken in temporarily by Tazuna, Reika learns of the struggles of the people in that Country and the tale of the boy who dreams of becoming the Hokage!
1. Chapter 1 - Black Lonely Hood

_**(The story starts at chapter 19 of the original Manga, so read up to that point to know what happened so far)**_

* * *

"You surprised me earlier," chuckled an old looking man strolling on the street. By his side, a pink haired girl with a red dress pouted.

"What's going on in this city?" she asked annoyed instead of replying to the man's comment. A man had tried to steal her bag obviously thinking she had money in there and, thinking the man was a pervert trying to grope her, the girl had kicked him in the face.

She was indeed remembering this event, still embarrassed, when she felt another hand reaching for her behind.

"Again?" Sakura grunted, turning around fully prepared to snap at the person.

However, the one touching her was but a child, asking her for food. The pink haired girl was taken aback by this sight and stepped back some.

"Please?" the child asked, tilting her head to the side cutely.

Sakura handed the child a handful of candy, receiving a joyful smile and sparkling eyes as thanks.

"Thank you! There's a sick girl over there, I bet she would feel better if you gave her candy too!" the little girl said, running off with her candy.

"A sick girl? Out here?" Sakura asked surprised.

"That's not surprising..." Tazuna replied, gloomy. "It's been like this since Gatou came. All the adults have lost hope. That's why we now need that bridge. A symbol of courage... we need for the people to lose their fear and regain the desire to stand up for themselves. If that bridge... if that bridge can be completed, the city will return to that time... the people will return to how they used to be..."

The pink haired girl noticed someone curled in the corner, coughing convulsively under a hood.

Without saying a word, she ran up to the person engulfed in darkness and kneeled down to look at that person in the eyes... just as soon as she could see them.

"Hey..." Sakura called, tapping the person on the shoulder. The person twitched; the hood moved a little up enabling the pink-haired girl to see the face underneath it.

It was a girl who looked no older than Sakura, with pale complexion and white straight hair. Her messy bangs were a little too long, almost completely covering her long lashed dark purple eyes. She had dark rings around them as if she had been spending a lot of time without sleeping. She should be the sick girl the little kid had talked about.

"Y-yes?" the girl asked weakly, keeping the black hooded trench coat near her. Sakura placed a hand on the girl's forehead. The girl looked up at her surprised and apprehensively, but didn't seem to have enough strength to react.

Sakura's eyes widened. "You... you have a really high fever..." she muttered, with her hand still on the girl's forehead. She looked back at the old looking man, who had followed her.

"Tazuna-san... even if it's not much... if we help at least one person we'll be doing the right thing. We have to help her! She can't be out here in this condition!" Sakura begged.

Tazuna looked at her in understanding and nodded. "There's an extra room in my house she can stay in."

Sakura looked dramatically at the sky. _"Sasuke-kun... Naruto... even if it's one person at a time... we have to help these people..."_ she thought, as she helped the sick girl up.

"Wow! This is super fun! It's been a long time since we ate with so many people," Tazuna said, scratching the back of his head happily as he watched everybody eating.

Sakura, the white haired girl, a little boy with a hat and an adult with grey hair and a mask were calmly eating while two boys were eating like there was no tomorrow. One of them had blonde spiky hair and the other one had black hair. They were making a lot of noise as they ate violently and quickly, as if they were competing over who ate the most. There was another person in the room: an adult woman who was washing the dishes called Tsunami. She was Tazuna's daughter.

"By the way, you hanging on there?" Tazuna asked to the white haired girl, who wasn't wearing her hood anymore but still looked quite frail.

Now that she didn't have her hood covering her head, her long white hair was now completely visible. It went down to her waist and she was keeping it in a low ponytail. She was now wearing a plain thick long grey sleeved shirt with a turtleneck and black pants that Tsunami had given her. There was also a thick coat on her back in case she felt cold. She had barely eaten anything and looked like she couldn't even pick up the sticks. Though, she looked slightly better than she did when Sakura and Tazuna had found her. Apparently spending some time indoors sleeping and the home made medicine Tsunami had made for her had helped her.

She smiled to the man in gratitude. "I-I manage... thanks for taking me in..."

"It's nothing, really," the man replied, chucking. "You should be thanking Sakura there..." he added, pointing at the pink haired girl.

Sakura smiled. "It was the right thing to do. You shouldn't be outside like that..."

The white haired girl looked down with a bitter smile. "I don't have a home, so the street was the only option..."

Sakura looked sadly at her, and then at the two boys. Her lips twitched at the lack of attention they were giving towards the person she and Tazuna had just brought in, preferring to direct it towards their silly little competition.

The two boys stood up, showing their now empty bowls, demanding more food exactly at the same time. Then they both turned purple and puked to the side.

Sakura got a bunch of small sweatdrops in her face and looked unimpressed at the boys.

The white haired girl gulped and pushed the practically full bowl away with a sigh and muttered "I'm not hungry anymore..."

Sakura glanced at the girl worried and then slammed her hands harshly in the table, snapping at the two boys. "If you're going to throw up then stop eating!"

"No, I must eat," the black haired boy stated, wiping some leftovers from the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, we have to no matter what. Because we have to become stronger," the blonde haired boy added, grinning.

The older man with the mask nodded in agreement. _"Yup yup! But no need to throw up,"_he thought.

"Like I care about that! Look at what you've done!" Sakura kept scolding, pointing at the frail girl by her side. "Reika-san needs to eat and she can't with you puking all over the room!"

At the mention of the name the two boys and the masked man glanced at her.

"Oh yes. Reika is it?" the masked man asked. "Feeling any better?"

"Wha? Who is that cute girl? Is she sick? She looks a bit pale..." the blonde boy ranted confused, interrupting Reika before she could even start answering.

"Dumb Naruto! You weren't even paying attention! Me and Tazuna-san found Reika-san on the street, ill, and brought her in!" Sakura snapped again, clenching her fist ready to punch Naruto for his foolishness if necessary.

"Ah sorry sorry!" Naruto said, putting his hands together as if begging for forgiveness. He then grinned at the girl. "Hey Reika! My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be the best Hokage ever!"

Reika looked at him with slight surprise. Then she smiled warmly. "Hokage, eh? That's a great dream you have..."

"Ah, see? Reika-chan believes I can do it!" Naruto said happily, turning mostly to the masked man and the black haired boy.

_"So it's Chan now?"_Sakura thought sweatdropping.

_"I-I didn't really say that..."_ Reika thought.

"Well, now you know Naruto. That is Kakashi-sensei..." Sakura introduced, gesturing to the masked man, "... and that's Sasuke-kun," she added, gesturing to the black haired boy.

Kakashi smiled (at least it seemed he was smiling, since it was hard to tell with his mouth covered by that mask) while the black haired boy barely acknowledged her, simply staring at her.

Reika glanced between Kakashi and Sasuke, smiling at both; then she started coughing convulsively again.

"Ah, Reika-san!" Sakura jolted out of her chair and bent down to Reika.

"I-I'm fine, it's just – cough – this coughing again..." Reika couldn't say much more in between the seemingly endless coughs.

"Okay, it's better to take you to bed now..." Tsunami said, leaving the dishes behind and taking Reika with her.

"Hey, hey, is Reika-chan alright? She's not dying is she? Oh god, tell me she's not dying! She has to live long enough to see me become a Hokage!" Naruto ranted, holding his head dramatically as if the world was about to end.

Sakura snapped yet again, this time actually smacking Naruto's head. "Don't say stuff like that, dumb Naruto!"

_**(To be continued ~ hope you like it so far)**_

This is how Reika's voice sounds like -

/watch?v=xn50opBp2v8&feature=BFa&list=PLAEC30F3197089028&lf=results_video

It's the one from 0:50 to 1:13.


	2. Chapter 2 - Seventh Day of Training

On the seventh day of training, Sakura and Kakashi went looking for Naruto and Sasuke, who were both missing breakfast.

Reika was with them, now wearing a light blue kimono with a purple sash around her waist. She looked completely healthy, and even her bangs were shorter, not covering her eyes anymore. She was almost skipping behind the pink haired girl and her Sensei while walking on the woods.

"You look so happy now, Reika-san," Sakura said, looking back at her smiling.

"Oh it's great to walk out without feeling weak now," Reika said, smiling cheerfully. "I must have been really boring for you guys."

"Not at all," Kakashi assured, smiling. He then stopped next to some trees and wondered "Where is Naruto? He left again by himself last night."

"He's missing breakfast," Sakura said annoyed. "Plus Sasuke-kun goes off on a walk and doesn't come back…"

"Maybe he went to look for Naruto-san," Reika suggested. _"Though the two don't seem to get along well…"_

Just as she thought it, a Kunai was dropped right in front of them, making Reika step back, taken by surprise, while Kakashi and Sakura simply looked at it.

They then looked up and saw who had dropped it: Naruto. He was lying on a high tee branch, grinning.

Sakura looked impressed. Before, she was the only one who could climb the tree properly. "Wow, he can already climb that high?"

"Hey Reika-chan here's too! What do you think?! Look how high I can climb now!" Naruto declared happily.

Reika put a hand over her eyes to look up and smiled. "Wow Naruto-san, that's amazing!"

He then stood up quickly and - lost his footing and fell back!

"AHH! Idiot!" Sakura shrieked.

"Oh no! If you fall from that height…!" Kakashi gasped.

Naruto seemed to be close to falling off the tree.

Sakura shrieked some more while Reika covered her eyes, expecting the worst… but the worst didn't happen.

Naruto put his Chakra on his feet to hang on the branch upside-down, grinning at them.

"Just kidding!" he laughed. "HAHA! You fell for it!"

"You scared me, idiot!" Sakura yelled, while Reika sighed in relief next to her.

"Don't do that, Naruto-san…"

"HAHA! Reika-chan fell for it too! Hey hey, you feeling better?" Naruto asked, putting a hand over his eyes to look too.

Reika smiled a bit. "Yes, I'm -"

She never got to finish her sentence, because then Naruto's feet disconnected from the tree branch as he lost control of his Chakra.

Kakashi's and Reika's eyes went wide with the shock, as Sakura snapped at him.

"Aww! Stupid Naruto! Stop showing off!" she yelled angrily.

From the look on Naruto's face though, it was obvious he wasn't faking this time. Luckily, just as he started screaming, Sasuke appeared and grabbed his foot, hanging on the tree branch just as Naruto was seconds before.

"You moron…" he grunted.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed. "Yay! Sasuke-kun! You're the best!"

Reika leaned on the tree still with her eyes wide, looking as if she had enough shocks for one day.

Kakashi was pleased though, smiling to himself while thinking how well the boys were growing.

* * *

_**(To be continued ~ hope you like it so far)**_


	3. EXTRA

DeviantArt

Not really a chapter but bare with me guys.

I've decided to put up pictures of my OC and FanFic on my account on DeviantArt, which is as follows -

~ glintyglint . deviantart. com ~

(because I'm totally not advertising or anything…)

I'll probably start providing links to pictures I make on each chapter so you guys can check it out.

The pictures for this FanFic are in the "FanFiction - Lost Memories" folder of my gallery ~


	4. Chapter 3 - Hidden Pain

Night had fallen already. At Tazuna's house, everyone was having dinner except for Naruto and Sasuke, who hadn't return from their training yet. Tazuna was at the edge of the table, while Kakashi and Inari were in front of each other on different sides of the table. Sakura and Reika were talking on the other edge of the table. Reika looked much healthier than when she had first arrived at Tazuna's place. She curled her hair playfully as she talked with Sakura, who giggled lightly at some joke Reika had just told her.

Their attentions were shifted towards the door once it snapped open. Sasuke and Naruto were at the door, the latter being helped by Sasuke. Both looked a bit beaten up, as if they wasted all their energies training.

"Oh… you guys are finally back," Tazuna commented looking up from the table. "What's this? You guys look super dirty and worn out."

Naruto grinned, even though one of his eyes remained closed from being tired. "He Heh… both of us… made it to the top," he declared.

Sakura looked at him impressed and Reika smiled. "About time! Good job!" she complimented.

Sasuke made a small grunting noise next to him, while moving slightly to support Naruto better. _"Training until he's too exhausted to move, what an idiot…" _

Kakashi looked pleased. "All right! Naruto, Sasuke… Starting tomorrow you two will also help protect Tazuna-san!" he stated.

Naruto's eyes went wide with happiness. "Ok!" he shouted happily, slumping into an empty chair, starting to snore immediately.

Tazuna was amused at Naruto's fatigue. "Hehe, I'm also worn out from today's bridge work. At any rate, the bridge is almost complete," he laughed, scratching the back of his head.

His daughter, Tsunami, appeared next to him with a kettle, and looked at him with a slightly concerned look. "Naruto-kun, father, don't overdo it ok?!"

Tazuna nodded lightly, while Naruto kept snoring.

Everyone seemed happy and relaxed at the table… except for one person. Inari looked at Naruto bitterly, tears starting to form on his eyes as he remembered his dad's promise and last moments.

"_You must protect what's precious with these two arms…"_

Naruto seemed to wake up from his quick nap as Inari's tears streamed down his face. The young boy couldn't understand why those four ninjas kept trying hard when to him it was clear they had no chance of surviving in a fight against Gatou's men.

Naruto looked at Inari bored. "Whut?" he asked rudely, as Inari's body started to shake.

Inari couldn't take it anymore. He slammed his hands hard on the table and stood up, making both Sakura and Reika jump in their seats.

"Why do you guys bother to try so hard?!" he snapped "No matter how hard you train, you're still no match for Gatou's men! No matter what glorious claims you make or how hard you work, when facing the strong the weak will only end up getting killed!"

The house went silent. Everyone looked at Inari in shock. They knew Inari wasn't too fond of them but they had never seen him like that. Naruto didn't seem impressed by his rants though and kept the same bored expression.

"Whatever kid…" he grunted. "I'm not like you."

"I'd hate to be like you!" Inari retorted. "You don't know anything about this country, yet you're being so nosy! What the hell do you know about me?! I'm different from you, you're always clowning around and acting so cheerful, you don't know how hard life can be!"

At these last words, Naruto's expression darkened. When he replied to Inari's snap his voice was nothing but an angry whisper that grew louder at each word.

"So it's ok for you to pose as the star of a tragedy and cry all day? Just keep on crying forever you idiot! You little sissy!"

Inari seemed to have lost his words and simply stared at Naruto, tears still streaming down his face. Naruto stood up from the table as everything went silent again.

"Naruto! You've said enough!" Sakura scolded, slamming her hands on the table as well as Naruto walked away. She sat back down angrily and looked at Reika as if expecting her to agree with her, but found Reika with a darkened expression as well.

Reika looked at the table firmly, her eyes narrowed with some sort of deeply hurt yet dark gaze, as her fists were clenched on her lap. It looked as if she was deep in thought about something that emotionally hurt her. Sakura blinked with concern and tapped her shoulder.

"Reika-san?" she called.

Reika jumped in her seat and looked at Sakura startled. She composed her expression almost immediately and smiled cheerfully. "Yeah?"

"Hm… are you…?"

Sakura didn't finish her sentence. Reika blinked while staring at her with her cheerful smile still on. At this point, Sakura wasn't sure whether Reika just looked sad because of the bad atmosphere that "conversation" had left behind or if she was just one hell of an actress, because there was no sign of sadness in her face anymore.

"Hm… never mind," she said, with a small smile of her own.

* * *

The next day, Team 7 was ready to guard Tazuna as he continued to work on his bridge… well, almost all of Team 7 anyway. Naruto was so tired from the tree climbing training that he was still asleep when the rest of the Team was ready.

"Goodbye! Please take care of Naruto," Kakashi said. "He's pushed his body to the limit. I don't think he'll be able to move today."

Reika stood next to Tsunami, who had her hands on her hips as she watched them leave. Reika did a thumbs-up and smiled. "Sure thing! Naruto-san is safe with us!" she assured.

Team 7 and Tazuna walked off into the distance. Tsunami looked at Reika still with her hands in her hips.

"What about you, Reika-chan? You said something about you being a drifter…" she asked.

Reika's smile faded a bit but she recovered quickly, looking up at Tsunami. "Well… I am trying to figure out something… I left Mizu no Kuni **[Land of Water]** because I couldn't stand to be in that place anymore… I ended up here but it doesn't look like there are any answers for me here either…"

Tsunami blinked with a puzzled expression. "What exactly are you trying to figure out?"

Reika took a bit to answer.

"I'm… trying to figure out who I am…"

* * *

"AHHHH! I OVER SLEPT!"

A loud scream echoed throughout Tazuna's house, making some birds that were peacefully sitting on the roof fly off scared.

Naruto stormed out of the room he was staying at and looked everywhere frenetically. "Hey! Hey! Where's everyone?" he asked to Tsunami, who was knitting something while Inari and Reika helped her.

"Oh! Naruto you're already awake?" Tsunami asked surprised.

"They left with Tazuna-san to the bridge, Naruto-san," Reika explained. "Kakashi-sensei said that you should rest -"

Naruto didn't stay to listen to the rest of her explanation. He stormed back into the room and changed to his ninja outfit quickly while ranting. "I knew it! I knew it! They left me behind!"

Next thing Tsunami, Inari and Reika knew, Naruto was nothing but a blurry orange figure dashing right past them in the direction of the bridge, shouting something like "I'M OFF!"

"He's in a hurry huh?" Reika laughed.

Inari still had his eyes glued to the door from which Naruto dashed out just seconds ago. He said nothing.

Reika stood up dusting off her clothes and stretched. "Well, I better go gather some of those healing herbs you used before in case I fall sick on the way…"

Tsunami looked up at her surprised. "You're leaving already? Aren't you going to wait for them to return?"

"Of course. But I might as well get ready. I've been abusing of your hospitality long enough," she giggled lightly.

Tsunami smiled. "Don't be ridiculous, sweetie. You can stay as long as you like."

Reika tilted her head smiling and waved as she walked off. "Thank you. I'll be right back!"

* * *

Reika collected healing herbs into a basket while she kneeled on the grass. Stopping briefly from her activity, she looked up at the sky and then back at the grass. She had the same expression she had on the previous night, after Naruto called Inari a sissy. Her hands squeezed her kimono unconsciously as she remembered Inari's words.

"_You don't know anything about this country, yet you're being so nosy! What the hell do you know about me?! I'm different from you, you're always clowning around and acting so cheerful, you don't know how hard life can be!"_

"… At least… he has his mother and grandfather…" Reika muttered quietly to herself. Her voice was shaking a bit, as her grip on her kimono tightened.

A sudden image of a girl with white hair stumbling in an empty destroyed village came to her. The girl had her clothes ripped to pieces and was covered in blood. She didn't look wounded, so it probably wasn't her blood. As soon as the girl opened her eyelids, showing her bright purple irises, Reika snapped out of her sudden flashback. She gasped, and then held her head annoyed.

"_What are you doing, moping around like this? Get up and do something instead of being a depressed ball of useless goo already!"_

With this motivational thought in mind, she resumed collecting herbs, until she heard rustling on the trees and looked up. Giving in to her curiosity, she stood up and walked on the direction of the tress and gasped again.

"What the…?!"

* * *

"WAIT!"

The two thugs who were taking Tsunami hostage looked back surprised at the child's voice that called them out. It was none other than Inari, who had finally decided to stand up to protect those he loved, just like his father had. His mother gasped in shock.

"Inari!"

"It's that kid…" grunted one of the thugs.

"Get… Get away from my mom!" Inari stammered, stomping his way towards them bravely.

The thugs didn't seem fazed and reached for their swords, ready to kill Inari without even a second thought. Tsunami called her son, fearing for his life, but he had made up his mind; he wasn't going to cower in fear anymore. Even though he closed his eyes, he had no intention of backing off.

The thug's swords connected with a body and sliced it… but it wasn't Inari's body. It was a simple log – the Kawarimi no Jutsu **[Substitution Technique]**. This managed to surprise the thugs.

"Sorry for being late."

The thugs looked back and saw a young boy with an orange jumpsuit next to a fainted Tsunami, a girl with white hair and Inari.

"But a hero usually shows up at the last second…" continued Naruto. "Great job, Inari!" he praised, clenching a fist amused.

It seemed he had used a Kawarimi no Jutsu on Inari and took Tsunami while Reika took the real Inari away from danger. Inari looked up at both of them surprised.

Some seconds later, the two thugs had been easily defeated by Naruto's Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **[Shadow Clone Technique]**. Reika had taken Tsunami back to the house to rest while Naruto and Inari stayed outside.

"Your mother will be fine," Reika assured as she joined them outside. "Just fainted from the shock I guess."

Inari nodded and then looked at Naruto. "How did you know those samurai were coming here?"

"There was a cut up boar in the forest," Naruto explained. "There was also a bunch of trees and stuff that had sword marks on them. I had just found the boar when Reika-chan showed up."

Reika nodded. "They seemed to be heading back home, so we got worried, " she added.

"Instead of that… Inari… sorry about yesterday…" Naruto said, looking straight at Inari, who still looked dumbfounded. Reika smiled at them softly.

Naruto chuckled lightly at Inari's confusion. "Sorry for calling you a sissy… Forget it." He patted Inari's head lightly. Then he added with a grin: "You're strong!"

Inari looked at the floor, his eyes getting watered again. This time though, Inari quickly tried to wipe the tears away angrily. "Damn it! I decided I wasn't going to cry anymore… You're going to make fun of me and call me a crybaby…"

There was a short silence as Naruto looked at Inari, remembering how he cried of happiness when he heard Iruka claim he was one of his precious students.

"… What are you talking about?"

Inari looked Naruto quizzically.

Naruto put his arms behind his head with a cheerful grin. "It's alright to cry… when you're happy!"

Reika kept on smiling at them. _"Naruto-san…"_

"Well…" Naruto started, deciding to change subject and turning around to the thugs, whom he had tied up tightly with long ropes. "If they attacked here, then the bridge could also be in danger. I can count on you here, right?" he asked, turning to Inari.

Inari nodded, finally managing to wipe the tears away. "Yup…" he replied.

Reika clenched her fists, seemingly feeling pumped. "I'll help too! I'll go with Naruto-san and help protect Tazuna-san! It's the least I can do repay him for allowing me to stay in his house!"

Naruto looked at her surprised. "Hm? Reika-chan can you fight?"

Reika smacked a closed fist on her chest proudly. "Don't let this face fool you! Just because you found me when I was sick or because I don't have a fancy headband on my head doesn't mean I can't fight!"

Obviously there was no way Reika could fight against Zabuza when she wasn't even a trained ninja, but to Naruto all that mattered was that she had guts and she was more than willing to risk her life to help. He had just met her but he knew he could trust her.

"Alright!" he cheered, starting to run off. "Let's go, Reika-chan! Man, it sure is tough being a hero!"

Reika giggled as she followed him, managing to keep up with him. Inari grinned, his tears finally stopping, as he clenched his fist in recognition to Naruto and replied "It sure is!"

The battle for freedom was about to begin.

* * *

_**(To be continued ~ hope you like it so far)**_


End file.
